Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-16
DIFFERENT EMPLOYMENTS.
How Some People Make n Living
In Los Angeles.

That the most profitable employ
ment is not accompanied by the hard
est labor, is an axiom that's generally
accepted, and one that affects all
branches of industry, from the upper
most rung Of the ladder down to the
lowest. For the man who depends
simply upon his physical powers for a
living, and who has no knowledge OF
of any trade whatever, Los Angeles
offers temptations that are not to
be equaled by any city in the
Union, and the itinterant whose
fate happens to bring him in
this direction finds wide and
diversified field spread before him.
He has the alternative of working on
a grain ranch, which is generally sup
posed to call forth powers of endur-
ance and. strength, inasmuch as the
labor is not of the lightest kind, or
he can seek employment on a fruit
farm, where there is no great tax on
his physical capacities but where is re-
quired dexterity and at least
ordinary intelligence. But two
thirds of the laborers naturally
incline towards employment within the
limits of the town, so that during
their hours of leisure they may have
some place of pleasurable resort
where they may while away their idle
time, and it is with these town.
laborers that this article has to deal.
The upper ten" consists of walters,
street-car drivers, hackmen, and
every class of labor where, to use
their own expression, they are able to
wear "boiled shirt" The walters
are, as a rule, an intelligent
and active class, usually young
Zone very rarely sees grey-headed
qarcon) and commanding salaries of
from $25 to $50 per month and their
board may be said to be tolerably
we'll remunerated. The hack drivers
belong more to the sporting element
as it is from this class that they main
ly draw their income. Their profits
fuctuate very much, some weeks their
net receipts amounting to $50 and $40
while again they are frequently unable
to pay expenses. Their charges are
reasonable considering the expenses
they are under and they are great
boon to the travelling public, supply
ing link which the street car sys-
tenn, good as it is, cannot fill. And as
regards the street cars, this medium
gives employment to about 800 men
in the town. The wages paid are
fairly good, holder of the ribbons
receiving $50 per month, and the
other employees in proportion. The
hours of labor are long, and the work,
simple as it seems, is not
the most desirable, as there is
not very much rest to be obtained
during the hours of duty, yet there is
always an over supply OF applicants
for employment, several extras being
kept on probation at each yard, to fill
the place of any regular employe who
may chance to be absent, and from
which position they eventually develop
into REGULARS" One grade lower in
the social scale, one discovers the
bootblacks and those who daily mount
into chair to have their pedal en-
castings Furnished, probably never
give thought as to what
the profits of their servitors
amount to. There are half dozen
first-class stands in the city, mostly at
tached to saloons or BARRIERS estab-
lishments. The rent for each chair
that the proprietor of the stand has to
pay averages from $40 to $15, and to
his subordinates he pays 81 to $3.50
per diem. The employment is a very
lucrative one, and it has been bad
day indeed when, after settling
all demands the proprietor does
not have $5 for himself, and
on Saturdays and special coca
sions the dollars frequently mount in
to the double figures.
Below all these comes the great
army of laborers pure and simple, men
who toll and trudge, and on whose
shoulders falls the heaviest burden of
all. 1t is almost impossible to
estimate their numbers. but
the total is at least 1000
and commanding as they do a wage
of $2 or $3.50 per day, it will be seen
that they are well remunerated when
one considers the scale of wages in
the East or South, where for ordinary
or unskilled labor the rate seldom ex-
coodc x1